


Ascension: A Certain Scientific Number Eight

by Rigen97



Category: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun | A Certain Scientific Railgun, Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index, とある科学の一方通行 | Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator | A Certain Scientific Accelerator
Genre: AU, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, after anime ended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-04-18 20:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4719326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rigen97/pseuds/Rigen97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title is perhaps self explanatory, but summary is needed nonetheless.</p>
<p>A month after the end of Vento of the Front's intrusion into the academic city, a new series of event followed. Misaka Mikoto's confession. A new esper reached Level Five and endangering Kamijou's faction from science side. Kamijou Touma suddenly remembered about Shokuhou Misaki. A fight that ends in near death situation. Unexpected saviors, and many more.</p>
<p>Is this universe still the same? Or it's merely an orchestra pulled by the supreme puppetier?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Confession and The Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! Expect an universe deviated from original but don't expect for a coherent one. I wan't really the best in this but this is the best I could pull.
> 
> Enjoy!!!

Misaka Mikoto watched the Academic City from her favorite bridge, sighed a little. It's only a month since a huge, wing-like thing destroyed a large portion of Academic City, and yet the city had running bussiness-as-usual, like there's nothing happened. It's not even appeared on the news.

She would've sighed again if there was no certain spiked black hair passed behind her. And she knows exactly whose hair it is.

"you didn't even stop to say hello, Touma." she scowled towards the boy in black high school uniform.

"ah bi- I mean Mikoto." Kamijou Touma flinched a little when a bolt of electricity shot his feet.

"seriously, you need to properly forget that nickname. I even called you by last name"

"yeah, yeah. As you wish."

"would you, uh," Misaka's face turned deep red "would you accompany me for a while?" her face turned even deeper red.

"ah sure, I didn't have anything better to do anyway." Kamijou leaned toward the railings, watched the crowded cityscape, about 5 meters away from Misaka

"come closer." Misaka said, still with blushing face. Smiling, Kamijou walked towards Misaka untill he's right beside her. Then silence followed, only broken by occasional sound of airplane.

"hey, Touma." Misaka whispered and leaned her body toward Kamijou's, surprising him in the process. "there's something I really wanted to tell you."

"promise me something first"

"huh?"

"you're currently touching me, and if you shook me with your electricity, my right hand wouldn't move fast enough to stop it. So, whatever you going to tell me, promise me you wouldn't shock me."

"those words of yours actually made me wanted to shock you even more, but because I'm in good mood I wouldn't" Misaka sighed.

"alright, let's hear what you have to say." Kamijou smiled.

Instead of answering, Misaka took a deep breath. Then she laced her fingers between Kamijou's, and whispered "I love you, Kamijou Touma"

Kamijou jerked and took a step away from her. "what's that for?" Misaka shot an angry looks to him.

"no, it's impossible. You hate me? I could live with that. You liked me as friend? that's acceptable. But you _loved_ me? Look, I didn't dislike you, but that was just plain _impossible_ "

"is that how you should talk to a girl that just confessed to you?"

"what I mean is, it's impossible for you to like me, Mikoto. It's probably just momentary feelings that came because the recent series of event. You'll forget me soon enough."

"what if I prove you otherwise in next one month?"

"don't. If you do that, it'll be useless anyway. I already had someone that I swore my life for, so I won't be able to return your feelings properly."

"which one is it? My clone, the serial number 10032? Your black-haired classmate, that princess-or-something? The nun in white? The cleaner robot rider maid? The apocalypse inducing brown haired highschool student that spawned those large wings? Or is it the pink-haired loli teacher?"

"they all had names, you know? And hell, why would I swore my life to Tsukuyomi-sensei?"

"just tell me which one!"

"it's Index! And in case you don't know which one, it's the nun with white uniforms. Satisfied?" much to Kamijou's surprise, Misaka started crying.

"why do you cry?"

"why'd you ask!?!?" Misaka cried "that's not even the correct question to ask to a girl whose heart you just broke!"

"I'm sorry, Mikoto" Kamijou put his arms around her, just to be shook with her lightning. "ouch. That hurts."

"you hurt me even more!"

"shock me all you want. I doubt it'll hurt as much as your heart anyway, so if it made you feel better.... aargh!!!!" his words interrupted by sudden shock of lightning. And more or less, that's how the rest of the afternoon ended for unlucky Kamijou Touma.

At around six PM, Misaka finally stopped crying, and with that, her electricity. "I'm still alive.... it's a miracle...." Kamijou collapsed at Misaka's arm.

Misaka scowled "that what you got for pretending to be strong" then she smiled and hugged him. "I don't really care who you loved, as long as I could be with you"

Kamijou smiled "it's not like I don't love you, Misaka. But I could only see you as a friend, or sister. I cannot love you more than that."

"I think that's enough for me. Anyway, have you heard about that rumor about the new level five esper?"

"huh? There's a new level 5 esper?"

"yeah, I think the ability is Thermokinesis, ability to manipulate heat. Their esper name is 'Vaporizer' or so"

"my esper name is Vapor, for god's sake. Why won't anyone ever remember my proper name?" a girl with long black hair in a black and red sailor uniform suddenly appeared behind Kamijou.

"so, it's you, huh? The new eighth ranked level 5 esper" the air around Misaka burst with electricity.

"yep. Gotta problem with that?"

"huh? Not a problem actually. It's more like I wanted to know, how strong is the strongest thermokinesis esper in this city " Misaka stood up, carefuly placing immobile Kamijou on the pavement.

"why don't we fight then? One by one?"

"sounds like a good idea." Misaka threw a huge bolt of lightning, only to be bent toward the ground.

"I'm a level 5 thermokinesis esper. Using plasma to ground your lightning is a piece of cake for me." a wave of wind knocked Misaka.

"control the heat, control the density, thus allowing me to control the pressure. And more." she fashioned a blazing plasma sword in both her hands, while Misaka used iron sand to made her own black sword.

They clashed, Misaka's black sword scattered in the wind, a plasma sword on her throat, another on her right arm.

"at certain temperature, any material would lose significant ammount of either electrical resistance or conductance. As an electromaster you must be aware about this limitation, Railgun. And unless you could alter the quantum properties of the iron sand, you won't be able to use those trick to me"

"well, if you finish me right here and now, you'd be third ranked level 5"

"without witnessing your famous Railgun? No thanks" the plasma sword disappeared. "don't you remember my name, Misaka Mikoto?"

"huh? Why'd I know your name?"

"hmm, probably because I didn't wore that flower bandana. I'm Uiharu Kazari, from Judgment 177th branch."

"impossible, you're Uiharu? How could you increase your level in such a short time? And your hair seems a lot longer too"

"because I'm _not_ Uiharu Kazari, silly. I merely researched your inner circle beforehand, Misaka Mikoto of Tokiwadai Middle School. I presume that man is the famous Imagine Breaker, Kamijou Touma. Am I right?"

Still half paralyzed by Misaka's lightning, Kamijou weakly nods. "yes, I am Kamijou Touma."

"apparently you're incapacitated by Misaka-san's lightning. How could her electricity bypass your Imagine Breaker?"

"because I allowed her to. I would appreciate if she could restrain from shooting her railgun near me for the time being, because the shockwave alone could add unwanted casualty."

"well, Railgun, it seems like we must postpone our battle. Remember this name: Rukia Kurogami, for that name shall be the one who steal the title of third strongest esper in Academic City from you."

"I will gladly wait untill the time comes, Vapor."

And with a gentle breeze, Rukia vanished from that place.

"be careful Mikoto. She looks really strong, smart, and, uh, I mean strong and smart."

"what are you actually going to say huh?" Misaka grabbed Kamijou's collar "you were going to compare my body to her, weren't you?"

"uh, ouch! I'm still affected by your lightning! And it's not my fault she had better aaargh!!" another electrical shock hit Kamijou before he finish his sentence.

"come with me for tonight. Both of us will get out of the Academic City for a while."

"huh? What? WHAT?!? What are you doing, Mikoto?" using her electricity, Misaka directly stimulates Kamijou's paralyzed muscles.

"wait, Mikoto?!? What if someone sees us leaving the city? And there's still school tomorrow, you know, so...."

"listen, I'm not going to repeat this. You aren't really in position to return to your dorm. In your current condition, I'll be affected too, since I'm the one who paralyzed you in the first place. The only reasonable thing to do is for us to go somewhere where no one could see us, and I know just the right place. And don't get a strange thought just because of this circumstance!"

They walked a while outside the gate of Academic City untill they arrived at a love hotel.

"there won't be anyone who suspect us here. Let me do the talking. And don't think of anything strange!"

"o-okay. Be careful."

Misaka walked into the counter. "we need a room."

"say no more" the person in the counter, a woman around 25-30 in a deep red suit, handed Misaka a key numbered 2-4. "first floor is all crowded, so there's only rooms in second floor."

"this is enough. Come on, Touma" still controlled by Misaka's electricity, Kamijou followed her to their room at second floor.

"we should able to stay here for a while."

"wait, Mikoto? There's only one bed!"

"of course, this is a love hotel after all. And you are still paralyzed, so I don't think you could do anything to me anyway." Misaka blushed a little "and it's not like I would mind if you do something" she half whispered.

If Kamijou heard that, he didn't responded. Otherwise he didn't heard that. "is it alright if I sleep first?"

"sure. I-I'll take a bath"

Misaka washed her blushing face in the shower. "what am I thinking? Am I that desperate for his attention? God, taking him here of all places." that love hotel was the only one she know, because a ridiculous act of her roommate Shirai Kuroko few weeks ago.

"but it's not like I'll hate him if he does _that_ to me. Wait, no, ugh, even under this shower I cannot think straight! I wonder if they put aphrodisiac in the water." _that sounds like what Kuroko would do, I wonder why she hadn't done that to our bathroom yet._

Misaka finished her shower and then head to the bed where Kamijou was lying, seemingly lifeless. Misaka's heart throbbed, afraid she had killed him, and then she saw subtle movements of Kamijou's chest while he breathe. She leaned towards him, kissed him in his forehead, before then thrown herself beside him. "I love you, Kamijou Touma."

The next morning, Misaka woke up on Kamijou's lap. "good morning, Mikoto."

Misaka didn't even bother sitting up. She looked up to Kamijou's face "you didn't do anything to me, did you?"

"nope. I didn't do anything to you" Kamijou promised, eyes locking with Misaka.

"why not? I was asleep right beside you, my guard was down, you are stronger than me and your Imagine Breaker could stop my electricity. And still you decided to do nothing."

"you made it sounds like you _wanted_ me to do something"

"why not?" Misaka blushed "it's useless to stay in that tsundere personality when I had already confessed my feelings"

With one swift move, Kamijou placed himself on top of Misaka's body. "when I do that, there won't be turning back for any of us." he returned to sitting position in the far side of the bed, smiling. "we have to get going. Now."

"allright" they both went to the first floor, returned the key and then paid the hotel with Kamijou's debit card before got out and walked back to the Academic City in silence.

Naturally, Kamijou broke the atmosphere. "how did you know that place anyway? I don't think it included in a school trip or something?"

"oh, it was my roommates. You see, she likes playing prank, and one day her prank involving that place. One of few places I hope I'd never known."

"your roommates? Oh, Shirai Kuroko, the teleporter isn't it?"

"yeah. She always pranking me that sometimes I wonder if she love me or hate me."

"I could see what you mean."

And then they walked in silence untill they reached the Tokiwadai dorm. "so, there you go."

"umm, Touma?"

"yeah? Wanna go somewhere together someday? Without paralyzing my body first, of course." Kamijou laughed.

"yeah, sure. see ya then."

Kamijou walked into his own dorm, greeted by his beloved roommate.

"Kamijou Touma, where were you last night?! I was really worried, you know?" instead of angry tones, Index's voice was full with concern.

"I have a fully rational reason, so listen to me" after entering his room and explaining his reason, Index scowled.

"so you were somewhere perfectly safe alone with a girl while I'm here worried about you" Index's fang gleamed.

"wait, Index, I was... Aargh!" without waiting for Kamijou to finish his word, Index bite his head mercilessly. "FUKOU DA!" Kamijou's word broke through the Academic City's peaceful morning.

"but really, this new level 5 esper piqued my interest" Kamijou said after Index calmed down.

"it's another girl, isn't it? Touma, you should stop...." Kamijou didn't listened to the rest of Index's words, and lost in his own thought.

"Touma, are you listening?"

"oh, I'm sorry" Kamijou snapped back to reality.

"Touma! Ah, well...." Index averted her gaze, her face blushing ever so slightly "maybe I will forgive you if you close your eyes"

"huh? I feel bad about this...."

"just do it!" Kamijou complied, not wanting to get another bruises from her teeth. And then he felt something soft and moist touched his lips. _Wait, is she_ kissing _me?_ Kamijou opened his eyes, at first not sure what to do, before then returned the kiss and pushed her away.

"this felt so wrong."

"what is wrong with expressing my feelings?" she ran her fingers through Kamijou's unruly hair "I love you, Touma"

Kamijou startled for a second, he remembered part and bits of something that was really important to him a long time ago "I-I have to go" he said before he ran away from his dorm.

"Touma! Where are you going?! Touma!" confused, Index tried to catch him.

"I'll be right back! Don't worry, I just remembered something!" what he didn't told her is what he actually remembered. A name that was really important, from a life long forgotten even before his total memory loss, a name of a person he once hold most dear: Shokuhou Misaki.....


	2. The Fight and The Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamijou Touma encounter Shokuhou Misaki, and a glimpse on the #8's past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, ch 2 is out, still no kudos tho, haha  
> Anyone who read this, please tell me if I did something that's really wrong

Not long after running from his dorm, Kamijou had stood in front of Tokiwadai Middle School Dormitory, the one he had visited on the middle of the Misaka Sisters' incident. "now what?" he didn't know which class she was, heck, he didn't even know if she was still in that school.

"maybe asking someone would be a good idea" but the only person he know would be Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto. "thinking about it, texting Mikoto would be more efficient." he sighed before pulled out his handphone and texted Misaka.

**Kamijou 10.16 AM  
Is there anyone named Shokuhou Misaki at your school?**

**Misaka 10.19 AM  
Yeah, there's one in my class, why?**

**Kamijou 10.21 AM  
Could you manage that she meet me this afternoon?**

**Misaka 10.24 AM  
Consider it done, I'll send you her email address with time and place of meeting.**

**Kamijou 10.26 AM  
Thanks. You're trully a godsent.**

**Misaka 10.39 AM  
Meet us at the same bridge, 3 PM. Why'd you wanted to meet her anyway?**

**Kamijou 10.42  
I honestly didn't even know. I just had this feeling that she might hold information that's really important.**

"yo! Sorry for keeping you waiting. I believe you are Shokuhou Misaki, aren't you?" Kamijou walked casually at the bridge towards Misaka and Shokuhou.

"you, how did you remember my name?"

"actually I wanted to ask you the opposite: how could I didn't remember your name untill now? The only thing I remember is that you were someone that was important to me in the past, but I cannot remember how? Why didn't I remember someone that I knew for a long time?"

"do you really wanted to know? Even if it means hurting everyone?"

"tell us" Misaka, that was silent from the beginning, snapped. "even if it hurts me, I wanted to know everything"

And so Shokuhou started her story.

"our story, or should I say _my_ story, since you couldn't remember it, started when we both still in the middle school. I was in my first year, while you're in your third year. Our meeting started by an accident that ended in a disaster for a person named Mitsuari Ayu. She was planning a suicide in an experimental geothermal power station Ground Geo, but she wanted you to save her. Alas, her wish wan't granted simply because you bumped me in an intersection and lost your phone, thus preventing you to save her. She was saved, but she lost her important faith in humanity.

Ironicaly, the next place we met was in the same place you failed to save her, the place she almost lost her life was the same place you saved me from performing a mental suicide. It was just like a pure coincidence that you met me there, all sweating, pointing my own power to myself, when in truth you just failed to rescue her and don't want to fail again.

Fast forward few weeks, and there I was, targeted by a group of esper named Deadlock that was least prioritized by the Academic City simply because the city prioritized the seven esper that later become the level 5. In an attempt to rescue me, you got into near death situation, losing so much blood they couldn't apply anesthesia. I used my power to block your pain receptor in place of anesthesia, but the side effect is you lose the ability to form any new memory about me. Probably you wouldn't able to remember this anyway, so maybe my explanation will be in vain after all...." Shokuhou hung her head, with tears in the verge of her eyes.

"no it won't. Because this time, he's not alone. I will never forget about your story." Misaka said with full confidence, although her eyes showed deep sadness. Shokuhou didn't know if Misaka's sadness was because there's someone else that share Kamijou's past or it was because her sympathy.

"I don't wish for your sympathy, Misaka Mikoto. Besides...." she pointed one of her remote to Kamijou's head "it seems like you have lost a tremendous amount of memory."

"don't get me wrong, Shokuhou Misaki. I don't have the slightest hint of sympathy for _you._ I do this for Touma, the person that I loved with my whole heart"

"both third and fifth ranked level 5 esper, huh? My, my Kamijou Touma, didn't you popular in Tokiwadai." Rukia emerged from the far side of the bridge.

"Rukia?" Misaka and Kamijou looked surprised. "how long had you've been there?"

"I'd followed you all afternoon, Kamijou Touma. I used mirage to shroud myself."

"who is that?" Shokuhou asked, confused by the looks in Misaka's and Kamijou's face.

"didn't you heard about the eighth level 5 esper? There she is, Rukia Kurogami, or Vapor, the level 5 thermokinesis esper."

"are you ready for our battle, Misaka Mikoto?"

"alright. Actually I hoped us to be friend instead, but I think fellow level 5 really can't get along with each other"

"we're all rival after all. But looking at you and Mental Out, it's looks like you both are getting along just fine."

"we just coincidentally share common interest. Touma, I don't think Shokuhou would appreciate to be caught in our skirmish, so would you be as kind to bring her away from here?"

"got it. And Mikoto" Misaka turned her face to him "don't get hurt. And don't kill her, most people have lower pain tolerance than me."

"you bet I won't."

After Kamijou and Shokuhou left the scene, Misaka charged her electricity while Rukia formed six floating plasma dagger. "so, care to show me your famous railgun?"

"if you say so" Misaka took out an arcade coin from her pocket, charging it with electricity.

"I will also show you my current strongest move, these daggers. You see, the reason I was called Vapor was because these daggers held enough energy to vaporize almost everything. I could control up to six of these before the accuracy dropped significantly."

"let's see which one is stronger then" Misaka shot her railgun while Rukia's all six daggers shot out towards same trajectories. Much to Rukia's surprise, the plasma that formed the daggers scattered by the sheer energy of Misaka's railgun, while the coin projectile missed her head by centimetres, and left her stunned on her knees.

"that is a railgun shot with 40 percent energy output, and intentionally missed. That projectile hold just enough energy to destroy the upper half of your body upon direct hit. Now if you excuse me." Misaka walked away toward the waiting Shokuhou and Kamijou. "see you later, Vapor"

What she didn't see was a plasma dagger flew toward her back. "Mikoto, watch out!" Kamijou had only enough time to shield her with his body, but not enough time to neutralize the attack, resulting in a huge wound on his back.

"that's hurt, cough!" Kamijou coughed blood "I don't know you'd resort to something like this, Rukia"

"don't move too much, Kamijou-kun. You was losing a lot of blood!"

"who are you to judge if I was fair or not? You didn't even know me!" a series of plasma dagger shot toward Misaka. Still bleeding, Kamijou break all the dagger with inhuman speed. "so that was Imagine Breaker, huh? What a convenient ability."

Shokuhou pointed one of her remote towards the standing Vapor. Shokuhou never used her ability from this distance before, but she had no choice. "Category 030 / Leave the indicated individual unconscious for twelve hours."

"Touma? Touma!" Misaka franticaly shaking Kamijou's body, her clothes full with blood.

"put his right hand into his head, he merely collapsed because inaccuracy in my ability. Now, I need your help. Please take him to the hospital. I won't forgive you if something were to happen with him. I'll take care of Vapor." but just before she finished her sentences, a teleporter quickly come and took away Rukia's body from the scene. "well, I leave him in your care. See you, number three."

"wait! You come with me!"

"huh? Why? There's nothing I would...."

"just come with me!" and so the two of them, carrying Kamijou in a taxi, headed into the hospital.

"hmm, it's surely a big wound, but it's primarily superficial. He should be fine after few days of rest" the frog faced doctor known only as Heaven Canceler explained to Shokuhou and Misaka. "I didn't know how he could come to remember you though. Maybe the total restructurization of his brain also restored the memory pathway for you, but if that's the case then he should've remembered you a long time ago."

"isn't that a good thing either way?" Misaka asked.

"it could be a good thing, or it could jeopardize his current life. You see, the existence of Shokuhou-san in his memory held a lot more meaning than the existence of any of his current friends, except maybe Index-san. At worst it would feel like there's different personality altogether forcing into his mind. I'm sure Shokuhou-san understand more about this than me."

"like a 'bomb' designed to induce mental breakdown." Shokuhou muttered

"almost like that" Heaven Canceler agreed. "it's 46% probability that he would break simply because remembering who you really meant to him. But the real problem would be with you both." he let out a sigh "what will you do if he come out as totally different person?"

An inconvenient silence followed before Misaka broke the ice. "I will still love him. No matter what."

"eeeh, that's my line!"

"but I beat you in saying that, so that's mine now!"

"that's unfair!"

"then that's it." Heaven Canceler smiled. "I believe he would be happy if he saw both of you unharmed when he woke up, but he won't be awake untill tomorrow afternoon, so I'm afraid you have to get back."

What they didn't know was, Kamijou _did_ woke that night. He awoke with a start, sweat drenched his clothes. "huh? Hospital? Oh, right, I was hit by those plasma dagger."

Kamijou sat up on his bed, wincing at the pain. He looked around before spotting a slightly distorted moonlight and sighed. "I don't bite, so come out of your camouflage already"

"if you could see through my camouflage that means I still have to work on it." Rukia smiled as she emerged from the shadow near the window.

"why did you hide in my hospital room in the first place?"

"I wanted to apologize. I realize I've acted immature and resulted in you being harmed...."

"you do realize that if I hadn't covered Mikoto, you could've killed her? If there's someone you should apologize to, it's Mikoto, not me."

"but your injuries, you could've died too!"

"I had got some injuries worse than these, and the doctor said it should be better after some rest. It wasn't that bad" Kamijou smiled "I sincerely hope the two of you could be friends. Honestly, you two were really similar."

Rukia smiled "you should be more careful about your smile, Kamijou Touma. Getting the heart of more than two Level 5 could be bad for your health. Farewell" Rukia disappeared with the gentle night breeze coming from the window.

"I'm still curious about how she did that" Kamijou muttered, before a red-haired man just appeared from the place where Rukia had been. "S-Stiyl Magnus?"

"oh? How generous of you to actually remember my name."

"How could I forget the name of someone who regularly throw me into dangerous situation? What's the problem now? Can't we wait untill morning?"

"that girl _is_ the problem. You see, that girl was a Necessarius priestess that disappear five years ago. She carried a Grimoire that's yet to be inputted into Index Librorum Prohibitorum, one from the ancient Greek origin. I don't know what exactly what power that grimoire hold, heck, I don't even know what is the title, but it must have something to do with her power development."

"wait, how old is she?"

"must be around 18"

"so she already a Necessarius priestess at age 13?"

"well, duh. A priestess was trained since eight, you know."

"alright. I guess it's standard mission then, we'll capture her, recover the grimoire, and then return both her and the grimoire to Necessarius."

"well, she was technicaly a student in this city, so her case was a bit complicated, even more than Deep Blood. We suspect that she could use magic even as an esper, thus she was even more dangerous now both as a level 5 esper and a magician."

"when will we commence the mission?"

"ASAP, tomorrow I'll tell you where and when to meet me."

The god of fortune didn't smile to Kamijou that morning. _Heck, the god of fortune never smiled at me._ Kamijou thought as he helplessly watched a little skirmish between the Library of Forbidden Books a.k.a Index, the Railgun, and the Mental Out. It seems like Misaka and Index had formed temporary alliance against Shokuhou because of their similar body.

"fukou da" Kamijou sighed, interrupted by a man in dark robes and a woman in white shirt and jeans pants "didn't I tell you that those words were forbidden in front of Kanzaki?"

"ah, Stiyl. Is it time?"

"Stiyl? Kanzaki? Time for what, Touma?"

"Shokuhou, could you?"

"say no more. Category 030/Leave the indicated individual unconscious for next 24 hours" Shokuhou pointed her remote toward Index, who fell unconscious immediately.

"they're both level 5 esper. If possible I would like one them to come with me instead of you two. The one you looking for was an esper, and both of them had acquainted with her."

"but they had no knowledge about our side. Another high-level esper with knowledge of our side is too much to risk."

"alright then. Shokuhou, Mikoto, take care about Index. There's someone I have to meet." Shokuhou simply nod, but Misaka still confused by Stiyl's sudden appearence.

"wait, Touma, why don't you tell us who is that and what he meant by 'our side'?!" Misaka yelled at Kamijou.

"I will tell you the next time we meet!" Kamijou and Stiyl jumped off the window to the road of Academic City while Kanzaki Kaori left by the hospital door, chasing the rogue priestess.


	3. The Magician and The First's Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamijou Touma tracked down the Necessarius' priestess and got into a fight, while Accelerator grew curious about the number eight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, well, I won't put my hope too high now. But I'd put my best on these so, enjoy!

For a magician that once hide from Necessarius for five years, and a level 5 esper on top of that, Rukia Kurogami was surprisingly easy to find. Stiyl and Kamijou found her in the middle of the road just outside the Seventh Mist, a mall complex that's bustling with activities. On the other hand, Kanzaki was nowhere to see, but she probably acted as a backup somewhere among the skyscrapers.

"Yo, Rukia." Kamijou walked casually toward Rukia, with Stiyl behind him.

"Hmm? I didn't know Imagine Breaker was associated with Anglican Church, no, the Church of Necessary Evil, Necessarius."

"Not really, I just help them from time to time. I also didn't know a thirteen years old magician would run away from the Necessarius with a dangerous grimoire only to return as an eighteen years old level five esper."

"Hmm, so he didn't tell you the full story, did he? Or perhaps the Anglican church's little pawn didn't know it? Kamijou Touma, I didn't run away with a grimoire, I ran away _while writing_ the grimoire. That's why they hadn't inputted that grimoire into the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, because it was still incomplete at the time I ran away."

"Impossible! The grimoire was from ancient Greek origin!" Stiyl crushed his cigarettes

"And where exactly you got the information regarding the grimoire, Stiyl Magnus? The grimoire merely written in ancient Greek, you see, because I was originaly tasked with analyzing ancient Greek magic. The information probably got messed up between my mission and my runaway condition, though I didn't know that such misunderstanding could happen in the organization like Necessarius. Nevertheless, the grimoire is completed by now, so I could use the spell contained within it."

"But you're an esper, aren't you? Shouldn't using magic dangerous for you or something?"

"Only if I'm _alive._ " the temperature around the two magician and Imagine Breaker dropped drasticaly, speck of snow even formed around the level five thermokinesis.

"By freezing myself, or to be more specific, my blood, there are smaller risk for me to use magic. Of course, this render me in death-like situation, so it's not like it's not dangerous at all. I could stay in this mode no longer than five minutes, so I can't use complicated spell, but I could use runes, since writing runes use no magic, and channeling mana to runes only need a small amount of magic in a short time."

"Stop! It's dangerous!"

"Huh? I was an ex-Necessarius member, dangerous is my specialty!" 

"I see, so you had placed the runes beforehand, all around this place."

"No, but I had written it." Rukia threw a few rune cards not unlike those Stiyl had, and recited the incantation in ancient Greek _"(Let all who live forsake me)"_. The shapes of the runes are different though, because unlike the ancient German origin of Stiyl's rune, Rukia's rune originated from ancient Greek's magic.

Soon the area around Seventh Mist devoid of people, which felt a bit surreal.

"So, you hadn't forgotten your lesson in Necessarius, huh? That means you shouldn't have forgotten what is my signature spell, did you? Fortis931" the temperature shifted again after Stiyl mentioned his magic name, but it's more like lighting a candle amidst a cold winter night.

"Fire is in my hand. Its shape is of a sword, and its purpose is to cut!" a torrent of fire gushed from Stiyl's hand.

Rukia stayed calm, and threw more rune cards, forming a magic circle.

"The firstborne, the oldest, and the last of the three. The protector of darkness and the forgotten, the master of the dead, whose dark fire burnt eternaly. Claim upon your birthright and your true throne, pour down your might and bring forth your mighty judgment! Rage of Hades!" a huge form of dark fire erupted from the magic circle, taking humanoid shape.

_It's the modified version of original ancient Greek spell. She had switched the language into english and switched the formula into runes, which reduced the power significantly but let the caster maintain the spell indefinitely as long as there's at least one rune remains, not unlike my Innocentius._ As a fellow rune caster, Stiyl easily analyzed the structure of the spell casted by Rukia.

"Getting the big gun right out the start, didn't you?"

"Well, I only had time for one spell, so it's not like I got time to waste"

"I should've followed suit then," Stiyl threw out his own rune cards "Its name is fire, it's role is the sword, show yourself by devouring my body and show your might! Innocentius!"

Apparently Rukia had reverted into esper mode, because she already wield two plasma lance on each of her hands.

"Thermokinetic is really convenient. I could freely change my body temperature from subzero to normal in no time, and accelerating air molecule into plasma at the same time" she threw her lance through the dark fire, aiming for Stiyl.

Kamijou's face turned stern, her voice colder and deeper than usual.

_"Listen to my words, or listen to my fist. Begone and cleanse this place from all impurities"_ with Kamijou's word, seven pale blue dragon sprouted from his right hand, disipating both Styl's Innocentius and Rukia's plasma lance in an instant, along with the rune cards. Apparently the control rune for Rukia's spell was placed further away, because her dark fire remains.

"Hmm, is it the advanced form of Imagine Breaker? I don't know even any Saint-level spell that could neutralize esper ability"

"Kamijou Touma, I had located her control rune!" Stiyl yelled, returning Kamijou's face to normal.

"Where is it?!"

"On her pocket!"

"Huh?" _her sailor uniform only had one pocket, on her chest... wait, what? I have to neutralize a rune placed_ there _?! Don't mess around!_

"Cut out the joke, Stiyl!"

"Huh?! Did you seriously thought I could crack a joke at this condition?! Quick! Neutralize the rune!"

"I seriously hope I could bring Mental Out. Her memory altering ability could be of use at this kind of situation," Kamijou muttered as he charged towards the eighth level five "I'm really sorry, Rukia!" his right hand forward, only needing a single touch to destroy the rune card in Rukia's left chest, but a gentle touch replaced by rough push, and then both of them fell to the ground, Imagine Breaker over Vapor, right hand still on her chest.

An empty rune card, which previously held the control rune for the Rage of Hades, fell down from her pocket. In that instant, the spell dissolved into thin air.

_Okay, this is awkward. Being Imagine Breaker and all, I'm usually not afraid of getting attacked head on, but if she could use her plasma with only her mind, piercing me right in my heart shouldn't be that much a problem for her, and would be fatal for me._

Kamijou brought himself to look at Rukia's red face. Probably forgotten of her own ability because of the humiliation, Rukia slapped Kamijou's face, followed by a kick in his stomach "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PERVERT!"

The kick wasn't really that powerful, but Kamijou feigned a recoil. Much to his dismay, Stiyl kicked his head "Stop getting aroused at work, you rotten pervert!"

Kamijou stood back to his feet "Huh?! You're the one who'd thrown me to such awkward situation!"

"I will never forgive you, Kamijou Touma!" she charged towards Kamijou, a blazing white plasma lance on his right hand.

_So, this is the end, huh? I had never actually thought about death untill it's so close to me._ Kamijou closed his eyes, braced for the impact. But just right before the plasma lance touched him, it dissappeared, along with Rukia. A warm wind striked his face instead, followed with a thick book in his chest, knocking air out of him.

Rukia rematerialized behind Kamijou, back to back.

"Consider it a gift. Stiyl, in return of that grimoire, could you please let me stay in this city"

"Well, my mission priority is that grimoire first and you second. Maybe I could discuss that matter with the Archbishop, but if it came to it...."

"Yeah, yeah I understand. See you then." as usual, a gentle breeze brought her away.

But down inside his heart, Kamijou knew this wasn't the last of their encounter. Deep between the skyscrapers, a woman carrying a huge japanese sword plunged down amidst the bussiness of the Academic City. Unbeknown by her, a pair of scarlet eyes filled with amusement peered behind white hair that concealed half of his face, on the opposite side of recent battleground of the eighth level five and the rune magician.

_So that's the eighth power, eh? Interesting, she might have a great expression on her face when I broke her bones with her own blood._ The first ranked esper, Accelerator, chuckled maniacaly.

_But that fire guy was pretty strong too, he should've also at around level five, but I'd never know about any pyrokinesis with that level of power. And what they're babling about earlier? Magician? Necessarius? Grimoire? Anglican Church? There's something about them that even GROUP had little to no information about it, and I'm sure it was somehow connected with that bastard Kihara Amata's plan. Well, before I break her perhaps I could extract those information out._

Like the previous woman that's coincidentally the only Saint patrolling Academic City, Accelerator plunged between the height of the skyscrapers, slowed down by his control upon the vector of gravity itself.

Right after he returned into the hospital room (where instead of him, Index is sleeping at the bed), he canceled Mental Out's ability from Index. Mental Out had exited the room obediently, while the Railgun still grumbling while Kamijou pushed her out through the door.

"Ara? Touma? Where are Stiyl and Kanzaki?"

"Oh, they just left. They were given a surveilance mission for a magician that recently thought to broke through the Academic City, but apparently that was a false alarm."

"That's a bit strange. Even if it's a false alarm, Necessarius' agent usually never retracted empty handedly. Are you sure it's actually a false alarm?"

"Well, Stiyl said so, and I had no reason to doubt the information," Kamijou shrugged "and I'm not obliged to pry on their internal affairs anyway" he smilled towards Index, still laying on the hospital bed.

"Lets go home!"

The night of the very same day, a certain dark haired girl in black sailor uniform ran around the dark alleyways of Academic City, chased by a white-haired entity known only as Accelerator or his epithet, The Number One.

"Come on, I just wanted to talk!" A solid glass bottle sailed towards Rukia as Accelerator laughed sadistically.

"What kind of people tried to talk by throwing glass bottle around!" Rukia couldn't help but commented at Accelerator's words after evaporating the glass bottle.

Apparently being chased with various sharp things flying to her hadn't stopped her sarcastic thought process.

"Isn't this how we level five talk? With our fist and power?" Accelerator appeared in front of Rukia almost instantly. She yelped in surprise while he grabbed her throat and slammed her into the concrete wall. It looks like he had manipulated the normal force of the wall, because instead of breaking her skull, the wall shrunk  
inwards like a mass of clay.

"Now that I had been kind enough to made a comfortable environment for us to talk," Accelerator grinned "how shall I torture you first?"

"P-please! I won't hold any secret nor information, and I won't lie about anything, so please don't torture me! I beg you!"

"Heeh, you're pretty interesting, but you didn't look powerful enough to be a level 5." Accelerators grip tightened as Rukia gasped for air.

"Please!" Rukia burst into tears.

"I have but one request: answer my three question honestly, and you wouldn't be hurt" Accelerator released his grip, Rukia was still implanted on the wall.

"First question: did you know that human brains operates with bio-electricity?"

"Y-yes, Accelerator-sama" Rukia shivered as Accelerator put his right hand at her head.

"I didn't ask you to use the '-sama' bullshit, but I'm in a rather good mood today. So, second question: did you know that, by perceiving the bio-electrical activity or the conductivity distribution of cerebrospinal liquid, one could also access the stored memory inside the brain?"

In a faraway part of Academic City, both fifth and third ranked level five sneezed.

"N-no, I didn't."

"HUH? You called yourself a level five, and yet you didn't know the principle of the number five's ability? Well, it's not like that matter though. Last question: what will happen if all bio-electricity on your brain is stopped?"

"Eh?" Rukia looked into Accelerator's scarlet eyes with horor as he grinned even wider and stopped all bio-electricity in her brain, and then all she could see was darkness.


	4. The First, The Last, and The One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Accelerator came dangerously close to the realm of magic, Rukia met the number one in the middle of pursuit, and my first original shadow organization appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized yesterday that AIM Stalker Takitsubo Rikou was the eight level 5 in the canon, but well, let's assume in this universe she could only perceive the AIM Diffusion Field with low level, say, level 2 power. The canon source _does_ note that though she was really powerfull, her power was really hard to upgrade that overloading her with the Esper Essence developed by none other than our good ol' Kihara Gensei himself could only increase the clarity of her AIM perception.
> 
> I put an explanation inside, by the way.
> 
> And so, on this chapter, I'd focus a bit on our eighth level 5 Rukia Kurogami that've terribly named as Vapor, my 'daughter'. This chapter is a bit longer than the previous, and I know that my english was terrible, so please leave helpful critics! Enjoy!

Accelerator had only stopped Rukia's brain function for 15 milisecond, enough to render her unconscious but not enough to do any damage. He frowned as he traced her memory like a midschooler dissected an animal.

 _Hmm, there are too much information to grasp. I need to save some of these for later._ He pulled out a holographic storage device and charging it with information taken directly from Rukia's brain. _She should wake up on her own after her brain regained all functionality, I should've gone by then._ He pulled her out of the concrete wall, and then brought her into the depth of dark alley labyrinth, before jumping up towards the top of a skyscraper.

 _Now, should I go home?_ He jumped down to the street before deactivating his esper mode and walked back to GROUP headquarters, taking some coffee while he's at it.

"Took you long enough, Accelerator. Were you having fun with that girl nyah?" Tsuchimikado Motoharu smirked.

"Tch, mind your own bussiness, you piece of shit."

"Nyaah, don't be that cold, Accelerator. Anyway, what was you plan with those information from her head?" _Rukia was a former Necessarius member, it'll be really bad if Accelerator learns about existence of magic and Necessarius. I must find a way to destroy that drive!_

"Tch, I was tasked to watch over her, right? I wasn't told to assassinate her, so I took the liberty to peek into her memories, and get a POV version of that battle against the _magician,_ " Accelerator grinned "I will get into your secret soon enough, Tsuchimikado Motoharu."Accelerator whispered in Tsuchimikado's ear.

Tsuchimikado smirked back. _This is bad. I need to notify Necessarius._

At the same time, Rukia slowly awaken in the depth of dark alley labyrinth of Academic City.

"Huh? Where am I? Oh, right, Accelerator chased me all the way through the city. So he had no intention to kill me after all, just to stun me for a while." she rubbed her head. "But what did he wanted from me? Did he saw my battle with Stiyl Magnus? Then, did he extract my memories? He did hint about something like that. If he did gain inteligences about Necessarius, it'll be really bad." she flicked her handphone and punched the Necessarius contacts Stiyl had given her.

"Orsola Aquinas? We have a situation." said Rukia as she navigated the alleys.

That night, she had a nightmare about what Accelerator had done to her earlier. She was implanted at the wall, Accelerator grinned, a knife on his left hand. Still grinning, he pulled a clean cut from her upper right forehead while looking directly to her horror-filled eyes.

His knife proceeded through her right eyes, going all the way down to her cheek and chin, and halfway through the neck.

 _"Now you know how it feels."_ As he said those, Rukia woke up, clothes all wet from sweat. She glanced to the clock, 4.00 AM, she got full 4 hours before the class started. _Did he implanted those on purpose? No, he definitely the Sadistic type, he would prefer hurting me physically rather than psychologically._ Oblivious to her surroundings, she started to remove her wet clothes and rummaged her wardrobes for a change.

A full 25 milisecond before it hit her, she sensed and reflexively dodged a caliber .338 bullet shot from a skyscraper half a kilometers from her room. _A sniper? No, probably an automated rifle platform. Tch, they can't even wait untill I changed my clothes, can they?_ She quickly pulled out a training suit and don it as fast as possible before running out into the street.

"Ugh, gotta skip school today. Well, probably the first time in my life, I hated skipping school." Another bullet shot her way, only to be disintegrated into almost nothingness right as it hit her shoulder. _That's still hurt though, I have to do something about the knockbacks._ She pulled out her handphone, which magically appeared in her pocket (in sarcastic sense of course), and punched the number for the only one she could trust for this, when a loud sonic boom almost blasted her sideways.

"Nice to meet you again, _priestess._ " Accelerator smiled mockingly toward Rukia while destroying her phone with single flick of his finger.

"What did you want? You've pulled all those memories out of my head, didn't you?"

"For now, I wanted to help you lose your pursuer before asking you several more question. Don't worry, I won't hurt you this time."

"Can I hold onto your promise?" Rukia shivered at the thought of her nightmare.

"Well, I'm no saint, no pun intended, but this time we have same objective. So, _yoroshiku_ " Accelerator grinned as he deflected another bullet with triple it's initial speed, destroyed the automatic rifle platform in the process.

"I kinda forgot to ask this, but why the heck you destroyed my phone, you bastard!"

"They tracked you via the GPS implanted there. Use this for now" he handed a small basic phone, the one you'd found in a supermarket.

"Uh, thanks, and sorry for calling you bastard." Accelerator smirked.

"You're really naive, V. I am a bastard, no fuck given. And if you wanted to survive past this and my sadistic nature, you should throw that naivette out the window, otherwise be prepared to start coughing blood. Either from this bastard or those."

"You really don't know how to handle a grateful expression, do you?"

"No I don't. Most people I met ended up begging for mercy rather than thanking me, so I didn't get a lot of those."

"You sadistic jerk." Accelerator smirked again.

"I got a lot of that one. Now lets get going before whoever shithead that set up that platform get the bigger guns." He picked up Rukia, princess-style, and began scrambling through the fading darkness of the Academic City skies.

They stopped in front of an apartment building.

"Yomikawa!" Accelerator yelled in the front doors of one of the apartment. A woman in her thirties with a long dark hair that reached her knees opened the door.

"Well well, if it's not you. It's still five in the morning, and the least you could do was respecting my limited sleep time, yet there you are bringing another kiddos."

"Believe me, I would rather go anywhere else if I could, but the only safe place I know was your place."

"So, who is it this time? She didn't look like part of the Sisters project."

"Is there any rules that the only people I could save are those from Sisters project?"

"I'm Rukia Kurogami, the #8, Thermokinetic. Nice to meet you, Yomikawa Aiho." Rukia bowed slightly toward Yomikawa.

"Hmm, you looks like a nice girl. Harunoki High, huh? So they've returned to the bussiness. Anyway, let's get in, Rukia." Yomikawa started to walk back to her room before turned to face Accelerator "Do you still have any bussiness here?"

"Tch" The white-haired boy sucked his teeth. "I will call you later." He jumped back to the top of the apartment complex while deflecting a series of caliber 5.56 rifle bullet.

Inside Yomikawa's apartment, a pink-haired child that couldn't be older than 12 with a cigarettes on her hand sat on the couch while staring at her e-book reader, showing a heavy book tittled _"AIM Dynamics as a Field and Liquid",_ which of course made no sense for Rukia.

"Komoe, Accelerator brought us a new friend." Yomikawa said as she threw herself beside the pink-haired child.

"Oh," startled, she crushed her recently lit cigarettes on the ashtray. "nice to meet you, I'm Tsukuyomi Komoe."

"Uh, nice to meet you too, Komoe-chan" still fooled by Tsukuyomi's physique, Rukia smiled while lowering herself to Tsukuyomi's eye level.

"I was a highschool teacher in same school as Yomikawa is." Tsukuyomi smiled _almost_ innocently, if one were to squint they would find mischief on that smile "So I would appreciate if you address me accordingly."

Apparently, Rukia was one of those person who could see Tsukuyomi's subtle hint of danger.

"I'm sorry, Tsukuyomi-sensei. My name is Rukia Kurogami, ranked number eight, Thermokinetic."

"Ah, so you're the one they've talking about, the 'Diamond of Harunoki', as they said. Sit beside me, Rukia-chan."

They sat in silence as Yomikawa brought a cup of tea for Rukia and coffee for Tsukuyomi and herself. Rukia peeked curiously at the book Tsukuyomi was reading.

_As AIM Diffusion Field was influenced by every usage of esper powers, there's a concern that certain esper could tamper with it's nature as liquid-like 'substance'. For example, espers with Vector Change could redirect it's flow, meddling with the use of esper power or even the mental condition of targeted esper. Another example was esper with Thermokinetic. As our previous assumption that Thermokinetic controls kinetic energy of particles without regard of it's vector proven wrong, we now know that Thermokinetic actually controls the molecular entrophy, thus...._

Tsukuyomi suddenly flipped the page, startling Rukia.

"Um, Tsukuyomi-sensei, could you go back one page?"

"Oh, that's right, you're a Thermokinesis." She flipped the page back.

_...thus, if they could perceive the AIM Diffusion Field as liquid-like substance, applying their power in AIM Diffusion Field could disrupt or even completely disable esper power usage in an area, by preventing any other esper to form a coherent flow of AIM. On another note, if the power were to be used to reduce entrophy in the AIM Diffusion Field, a Thermokinetic could also increase the power output of an esper to surpass the initial power level...._

"But these condition was fully theoretic, Rukia-chan, because there are currently no one that could actually perceive the entirety of AIM Diffusion Field. The AIM Stalker Takitsubo Rikou, that associated with shadow groups ITEM, could only perceive and identify AIM that emitted by one particular esper. If she were to reach level 4, it might be possible, but it's impossible with current technology to increase her level. Other than her, the only one to perceive AIM Diffusion Field would be the Counter Stop Kazakiri Hyouka, but no one had trully understand her actual power."

"What about the unknown Level 6, would them be able to perceive or even control the AIM Diffusion Field?"

"As no one had actually reached Level 6, or even had any idea what kind of power Level 6 would had, that would be hard to say. But it doesn't have to be Level 6, as if Takitsubo Rikou reached level 5, she would be able to manipulate AIM or even generate one out of nothing."

"Is that so? It's a shame. That'd mean I have to work on another idea to defeat Accelerator."

"Aiming high, weren't you?" Tsukuyomi smiled as she turned her attention back to her book, while Rukia back into her mind.

 _But if I could induce entrophy into, say, mana flow, I could break any spell by preventing the mana to sustain the spell, or even breaking the consistency of mana within the spell itself. If I could reverse-engineer the spell then that won't be necessary, but if I unfortunately run into a Saint, even reverse engineering the spell won't be enough. And unlike AIM Diffusion Field, I_ could _perceive the flow of mana around me._

"That being said, what brings you here, Rukia-chan? Accelerator only said there's someone chasing you, but he left out great amount of detail there."

"That does sound strange, as we were preparing for the war and whatnot. The automated platform that targetted her earlied sure used an obsolete rifle model, but it still not something Skillout could afford, especially not now after Accelerator's team eliminated their core leader and fundings."

"I've thought about it for a while, but doesn't Skillout and Antiskill had similar meaning?" Yomikawa and Tsukuyomi stared at Rukia's sudden remarks. "Just saying. Please continue."

"I would've thought it was Hound Dog units, but it was too discreet, and after Kihara Amata was defeated by Accelerator, apparently the Hound Dog was dismantled as well."

"That platform was a courtesy of REASON." Accelerator said as he threw himself on a couch on the opposite side of the room. "As in why the fuck those motherfuckers wanted to capture this brat, I don't know. Seriously, this city sucks at giving name to shadow organizations."

REASON, Research on Esper Ability Sistematic Output Nullification. An organization that researching Imagine Breaker possessed by Kamijou Touma and the way to artificially create similar power, at least to nullify esper powers. Rukia had heard a little about what cruel human experiment this organization did, but they surprisingly never killed anyone in their experiment, even there's no death associated with them in GROUP record, which accessed by Accelerator on the way home. The worst their subject had been through was losing an arm or two, and even that was miraculously healed.

"Wait, they wanted to _capture_ me?"

"Of course they did. Otherwise they'd point their guns at your head."

"But they pointed it at my heart! Wasn't that as dangerous?!"

"Obviously they only wanted your esper power. In that case, they only need functional brain and spinal cord. Anything else could be replaced in the lab."

"Yomikawa-sensei, your comment weren't exactly encouraging...."

"They might interested in meddling with the AIM Diffusion Field through your power, Rukia-chan"

 _This is no joke._ Rukia gulped. _I had the potential to wield similar power to Imagine Breaker, or even more since it won't be limited to my right hand and would be able to strengthen other than simply nullify. I couldn't actually nullify anything though, increasing the entrophy of AIM or mana flow would only weaken, not destroy the ability or spell._

"If you don't mind, why not stay in my place for a while." Yomikawa smiled "You too, Accel-chan." her smile turned into grin as she addressed the Academic City's number one.

"Tch. If you called me that again I swear I'd broke something off your body." Accelerator laid himself on the couch "Well, that means I got free dinner, right?"

Not so far away, at a certain convenience store, Misaka Mikoto sighed as she flipped through the magazines with almost no interest, before an all too familiar honey-blond hair passed right outside. She quickly put down the magazine and got out of that convenience store, only to find Shokuhou Misaki clinging into none other than ever-misfortune Kamijou Touma.

"Is there any actual reason as to why you have to follow me so closely, Shokuhou-dono?" not realizing the storm that followed him, which was almost literally, Kamijou walked with Shokuhou on his side, more strangling than clinging, but no one would know that from the outside. Not even the Railgun that was following them with face hot from rage.

"Ara, I merely wanted to make up for my year-long loneliness without you☆"

"Still, weren't you going too far? And the, argh! Your chest! Can't you stay further away?! Kamijou-san is a normal teenager boy that hadn't mastered the technique to bound his lust!"

"Tehee, I also wanted to show off how much I'd grown from that time☆"

"You should've grown out about that twisted mind of yours instead!"

"Kamijou Touma," Kamijou halted instantly when he heard a crackling sound "are you sure it's not _your_ mind that was twisted?"

"Misaka-san?!" he dared to spin his body with Shokuhou still in his left side. "It's not like what you think! And please dont reduce me into inrecognizable life-form!" Kamijou frantically tried to pry Shokuhou from his side while Misaka already charging her railgun.

Fortunately, an unpredictable factor had halted her. The person that had left even Misaka stopped her breathing was none other than one of several people that had firsthand experience with an AIM thought being, and even gave birth to one herself, Kiyama Harumi.

"Kiyama-sensei?"

"I need your help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone could guess what Kiyama Harumi wanted to do? And give me sugestion on that too! here's a clue: there's always a reason of her action.  
> And I know, those talks about AIM wasn't really necessary. Just opening a path towards new development.


	5. The Researchers and The START!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Level fives are gathering against the new threat named REASON. An alliance is formed, and the stages finally set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello? Is anyone reading this? If there are people who actually read this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I'll appreciate if anyone left me any critics or sugestion.

A few minutes after Kiyama Harumi met Misaka, Shokuhou, and Kamijou on the road, she brought all of them to her office.

Which by no means a standard doctor office.

It wasn't exactly huge, only six by seven with a computer on top of a desk and a shelf filled with research paper. A set of sofa filled the opposite corner. What made it out of ordinary was a huge cylinder in the middle of the room, filled with orange liquid and connected with a lot of cables to the computer on the desk.

"Come in. Ah, that was just an experimental prototype of the so-called shading computer. It's harmless."

The four of them sat on the couch, while Kiyama pulled out a small black box and put it in the middle of the small table.

"The two of you must've been familiar with the terms 'Esper Brainwave Network' or 'Misaka Network', right? And Shokuhou-san must have no difficulties in understanding the concept."

"Misaka Network? Oh the network of those Sisters. I didn't understand the detail, though" Kamijou scratched his heads.

"So I assume it's like a telepathic network?"

"No. It's fundamentally different. It's a network of brainwaves that connect an esper to another, regardless of type, and then share the total processing power among each other. It's more about 'Level Upper' than Misaka Network, isn't it?"

"Level Upper?"

"Long story. Anyway, I thought the Level Upper case ended with the destruction of that AIM Burst. Why'd you suddenly talked about that again now?"

"Wow, back up. Why no one stop for a while and explain to me what is this Level Upper or AIM Burst. I hate not knowing." Shokuhou snapped at the one-sided conversation.

"It might be faster to show you." Kiyama pushed a button on the box, and a hologram burst out, showing list of name, photograph, esper power and level, and brainwave signature, connected to each other by multicolored thread.

"An esper generate power based on certain calculation. The forming of Personal Reality that resulted in esper power phenomenon also resulted in exponential increase in the individual calculation capacity, in other words, increase in the brain 'clock' frequency, enabling the use of esper power as natural as moving a limbs. Then what if a certain individual connected herself to several people with esper power and then 'bounce' her calculation through their personal reality?"

"She would gain a tremendous amount of computation power. No, wait, she would also gain the power of the esper connected to her!"

"Correct. That was what I did in the past, using a neuroprogramming to create an esper network that strengthen each other, and centered at me. That was the Level Upper. The espers connected at the network shared their excess processing power and in turn let them gain power one or two level higher. What I wanted was actually the processing power, and the esper power I gained was only a side effect. But the program I created was incomplete, and then those esper power that had concentrated in one place had created the existence known as AIM Burst, a living creature born out of the esper power itself.

Here's a question: What will happen if someone had perfected the Level Upper and then used it to connect all the level five?"

"The result would be catasthropic!"

"Is there actually someone who planned to do that?"

"The power gained from all level five, is this about that Level 6 again?"

"I don't know why they'd do that, but the number four and eight had been pursued while none captured yet. The number one had encountered them while pursuing number eight, and number seven is too unstable that they hadn't targeted him. There are no news coming from the rest, but it should be only a matter of time." Just as she said that, a .445 bullet neatly pierced the glass window and punched a hole right through her left chest.

"Shit, they've found me!" she coughed blood while holding her chest "Quick! Leave this place! The bullet had pierced my heart, I cannot be saved anymore, not even by Heaven Canceler" Misaka immediately dragged Shokuhou out, while Kamijou grabbed Kiyama's left arm and began dragging her.

"You are _not_ dying on me, you hear me? You'll come with me to Heaven Canceler and then you will be back to normal." several smaller caliber gunshot broke the glass and scraped his arm.

"Coming from a boy who refused to help me look for my car." Kiyama smiled weakly "Let's go."

They miraculously escaped the shower of bullet that shattered not only the window but also the shading computer. Misaka apparently had brought Shokuhou away, because they're nowhere to be seen.

"Let's head to my car!"

"You cannot drive, neither did I!"

"I could set the AI on the car to bring us to the hospital! Let's go!"

They ran through the coridor, where several men in dark tactical suit with assault rifle shot them. While evading the bullets, they ran towards the parking lot where a group of people with same tactical suit was lying unconscious, probably blasted with Misaka's lightning, whose stood beside the blue car.

"Get in! I could hold them here! And for this time only, take _that girl_ with you!" She pointed at Shokuhou while crack of electricity formed around her forehead.

"But there's only one passenger seat!" Kamijou franticaly protested to Misaka as she blasted another dark-clothed group.

"What?!" Misaka blushed a little "Then let her sit on your lap!"

"You seriously letting her do that?! It'll be dangerous for me!"

"Did you happen to have any other ideas?!" That silenced Kamijou right away. He opened the car doors and joined Kiyama that've finished setting the car's autodrive. They immediately took off to the hospital.

Had Misaka known that Kiyama and Kamijou could easily swap sitting place, she won't suggest letting Shokuhou sit on his lap. Let's just say Misaka didn't know and would be really mad when she found out later, and Kamijou would be the victim of her wrath, again. For now, however, she was to bussy dealing with the team that apparently sent by REASON, judging by their badges, and several multi-caliber rifle platform placed atop a skyscraper a kilometer away. Untill the person she expected the least to come appeared: Accelerator. Oh, and Rukia too, by the way.

"These people are so much pain." Accelerator said as he landed in the middle of the parking lot and deflecting 24 bullets coming from various angle.

"You, what are the two of you doing here?"

"Not even a thanks, huh?" Rukia blasted a series of rifle bullet into dust. "The organization named REASON is behind all this, they're targetting level five espers for unknown reason, no pun intended. I and Accelerator had decided to contact and gather with all the level five. Grouping all level five in one place would increase the risk of attack, but also increase individual chance of survival."

"Wait, you're grouping with that monster?!"

"Oh, c'mon, don't get started on that again." Accelerator deflected an assault rifle bullet back toward one of the platform. "If you didn't want to become a living corpse used for their nasty experiment, follow me. Otherwise get the fuck out of the way."

At Kiyama's car, both cell phone belonged to Shokuhou and Kamijou received an email, apparently from a mailing list named "START".

**Accelerator//START 10.12 AM  
I hate doing this, and I don't believe I'd ever say this, but I need all of the Level 5 _and a certain level zero_ to form a temporary alliance against REASON. Gather to designated point in attached GPS coordinates before three this afternoon. Those who don't come would be assumed as enemies. Accelerator out.**

"What's that?"

"It's strange. It wasn't really his style to made an alliance in any condition."

"Isn't that just means this REASON problem is more than what he could handle alone? And his reasoning is perfect too: grouping all level five in one place would increase the risk of attack, but also increase individual chance of survival. The question is why did he include me?"

"Let's concentrate on our own problem for now. I could slow down her heartbeat, but the most I can do is slow down her bleeding for another half an hour."

Thankfully, they reached the hospital fifteen minutes later, where Kiyama immediately admitted into ICU. Still using Kiyama's car, Kamijou and Shokuhou quickly inputted the GPS coordinates into the autodrive.

Apparently, giving a deadline untill 3 PM is too long, because all nine member of the START had gathered by two. Even the mysterious number six, Aihana Etsu, is present, although he stayed in the background with his phone. The gathering place was one of the scene where the Level 6 Shift experiment was conducted, specifically experiment number 10031.

In other word, one of the dark back alley in the middle of the Academic City.

Rukia and Misaka arrived with a swift breeze through the alleyways, while Accelerator dropped from the roof of nearby storage building before flicked his choker electrode off. Shokuhou and Kamijou arrived at nearby road with Kiyama's car and then entered the alley after resetting the autodrive. Kakine Teitoku still had two pair of pure white wings in his back, apparently he had arrived quite recently.

"Really, we're the gathering of the level five! The ones with most guts in this city! Why can't we gather somewhere with more guts instead of a back alley like this?!" the number seven, Sogiita Gunha complained indignantly.

"Hey number one, I still have some work to do, so if you had something really important, start talking." spat the Meltdowner, #4 Mugino Shizuri. "I'm only listening because it was you that gather us here, so I was hoping for something reasonable, not bullshits like saving some little brat."

"Tch, it's not like I wanted to gather all of you shithead here in the first place. But these REASON guy were arrogant enough to target all of us as lab rats. Their original goal was to develop ridiculous power similar to this bastard have, power to nullify any psychic abilities," Accelerator pointed his thumb to Kamijou "as why they'd target us, it's some different question altogether."

"They wanted to make a network of all level 5's brainwave, allowing someone to acquire all of your power, and more powerful version since it's a level 5 ability calculated by seven brain at the same time. The number seven wasn't targetted because his unstable and incomprehensible power." Kamijou continued with information he received from Kiyama.

"Their next moves probably using the mixed AIM generated at the 'host' to mess with the AIM Diffusion Field as a whole. If they completed their research, they would create a completely new personal reality at the 'host' and the link with the level 5 network could be disconnected. The 'host' would become stronger than any level 5, probably even become a level 6, with ability from each of level 5 and a connection to the AIM Diffusion Field itself." In turn, the closest person to Kiyama Harumi in that group, Railgun continued the explanation.

"You mean they would make level 6 version of Takitsubo? I mean, the AIM Stalker that's in the ITEM?"

"Yeah. Our goal is simple, to eliminate every single bastard that had as much as the phone number of REASON's member. Everyone that had even the smallest link to REASON is our enemy."

"To prevent the breach of our position from our names, we need a new epithet for each of us. Kamijou, Ground, or Leader. #1, Direction, or Director. #2 Creation. #3 Shockwave. #4 Green. #5 Lucifer. #6 Shadow. #7 Highlight. #8 Wind. Our contact will be coordinated through specialized headset." Rukia handed out nine specialized headset. "And oh, Director, please don't destroy these. It's pretty expensive, and if you broke it you'd better be prepared."

"Tch. There are no actual need for a leader, since each of us will be moving on independent mission. But everytime you did a mission regarding this issues, inform the others so they don't get in the way, don't carry out redundant mission, and provide support if necessary. That's all for START briefing. There won't be any other convenient briefing anymore, so go kick those bastards' ass."

Each of them began moving to respective hideouts and residence, but Kamijou managed to caught up with Rukia.

"Hey, there's something I'm really curious about you."

"Huh? What's that?"

"How did you do that breeze/wind teleporting stuff?"

"Oh, that? Had you ever read the book titled 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho?"

"Yeah, that's like, an english class for eighth grader."

"There's part where the protegonist supposingly commune with the Soul of the World and become the wind. It wasn't actually a new idea, there are many magic spell and foundation that were able to turn one into wind. I used the same concept, but instead of using mana, I used the logic in my esper power to suplement the magical part. That was really hard trick, but someone in level five power actually able to carry out something like that, or rather, it was _because_ a high level esper could do that, that magic spells and foundations created to imitate it. Another example was the Director's wings and a Telesma wings, both were naturally occuring phenomenon with similar effect and yet they existed for completely different reason and had completely different source."

A static rang through their headset.

_"Shockwave and Green here, preparing a direct ambush to a suspected REASON warehouse, requesting support from Wind and Ground. Meeting place is #10032, I repeat, meeting place is number one zero zero three two"_

"#10032? What kind of code was that?"

"There's probably only three person in START who knows that code means, which is me, Director, and Shockwave. That was an experiment ground for a project that I and Shockwave ended, just like our previous meeting place." Kamijou flipped his cell phone and opened a GPS coordinate for an abandoned trainyard "There."

Just as he say that, Rukia vanished into thin air.

"I hate when she did that." And so Kamijou start running out of the dark alley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stage had been set, intros are finished, this is the beginning of the war in the science side of Rukia Kurogami. I'll made her went through war in science side, magic side, and a war between both. Start expecting more from me after this chapter, I'll try my best to give you a war that while not as huge as the Magic God arc in the New Testament light novels, it'll shook this fictional world. Literally.


	6. The Clash: START_Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war against REASON ignited. The unheard of alliance of level fives strike into the heart of the REASON.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The war started, niggas

"I don't recall asking for backup from Lucifer." Misaka frowned as Kamijou arrived with Shokuhou at the abandoned trainyard.

"Well, she forced me to took her along." Kamijou shrugged "And we could use some more firepower, can't we?"

"We have a support from Yomikawa-sensei's unit from Antiskill." Rukia flipped her phone off.

_"Green here. ITEM is on standby. Antiskill and ITEM will attack a warehouse in 22nd District as diversion, while your group will attack another base of operation in 21st District. Diversion unit will commence operation in five minutes. Green out."_

As their operations lined out, the first alliance of all level five to wipe out REASON was set on motion. But they hadn't seen the true danger behind the dark organization. At a certain cafe in 15th District, a black haired girl in bussiness suit sat with a cup of tea in her hand. She was the true mastermind behind REASON, a monster with frightening intelectual prowess that could predict every movement of her enemy and include them in her plan.

"They're on the move, huh? Took him long enough." she waved her left hand and a 120 cm white staff formed. That wasn't a magical staff, rather, the staff was made from the same material as the power of Academic City's #2, Dark Matter, although on weaker level. "But that's all part of the plan. Now, I will let you know how true despair feels like, _Aneki_."

Her name was Rukia Yamiko, and she was the younger twins of Rukia Kurogami. She stepped out from the cafe and began walking towards an old looking building meant to be a warehouse for one of the department store.

The idea to develop a method to limit or disable esper ability usage wasn't something new, after all, the fortress of the Board of Directors' member had equiped with AIM inhibitor. But the device had only suceeded in limiting the usage of esper ability, significantly downgrading the output and the control of the esper. The device could downgrade even a level five into level two the instant the esper entered the area of effect.

It went without saying what would happen to a level three esper that entered the range of the device.

But the true goal of Rukia Yamiko wasn't something as ridiculous as obtaining the ability to neutralize esper ability. She herself was a level 2 esper. Her wish was far simpler than that: she wanted her sister to feel despair the same way she did.

Unlike her elder sister, Yamiko was sent to the Academy City since elementary school ages. She began developing her esper power, level 2 Materials, around the same time her sister ran away from the Necessarius. But she hadn't leveled up ever since. In short, she envied her sister who not only adept in ancient Greek magic but also a level 5 esper. She envied her to the level that she would do anything to make her felt the same despair, even if that means eliminating everyone around her.

Yamiko flicked a headset in her left ear. "Evacuate the 22nd District warehouse, fill it with Ignis and leave the defense turret active. Prepare _that_ at the 21st District headquarter. _That girl_ was on the move, kill anyone coming with her but leave her alive. I'll personally kill her."

She walked into a metal cylinder the size of a human. That was a device used to emulate esper power using pure industrial technology, in this case, it was create to emulate the power of level 4 Move Point, Musujime Awaki. In other word, a teleportation device.

"Preset coordinates: 21st District HQ. Begin synchronization."

At the same time, REASON Headquarters, 21st District. Misaka Mikoto, Rukia Kurogami and Kamijou Touma began their ambush while Shokuhou stayed at the meeting point.

"As I thought, she was a hindrance. I don't know how she could be that attached to you, Touma."

"Well, a lot happens in the past, and I guess I was spoiling her quite a bit."

"You said she was attached to him, and yet the same could be said about you, Tokiwadai's Railgun." Rukia giggled as she vaporized an entire section of reinforced steel walls. A series of gun shots burst from the disintegrated wall, but none failed to get close to any of them.

But just as they stepped forward, a green light burst from the road and destroyed it, leaving a perfect circle around Rukia's feet. A huge crater spread at least ten meters in diameter around her. Rukia fell into her knees as a thin white catwalk connected their target warehouse to her perfect circle.

"Long time no see, _Aneki._ "

"Yamiko?! What happened with Kamijou and Misaka?"

"Oh, those meddling rats that interrupted our reunion? _I killed them,_ of course. I don't know if _blasting them into pieces_ with artificial Meltdowner would be enough to kill them though."

A static rang through Rukia's radio. _"Green here. The diversion unit was completely wiped out. The target was empty and filled with explosive. Diversion unit will now withdraw, aargh!"_

"You... killed them..."

"Don't kill me so easily, you bitch!" Misaka jumped into the small asphalt circle, right behind Rukia "I almost actually died, you know!"

"Oh, you actually survived. Well, it _is_ an electron beam."

"What about Kamijou?"

"I'm sorry, I can't save him. But we could mourn that idiot later. For now, let's kick some sense to this- eh? There are two Rukia?" now, Misaka knows she of all people shouldn't be surprised, after all, she herself had over nine thousand identical 'Sisters'. But the sight of Yamiko standing in front of Rukia apparently enough to surprise even her.

"Aah, I know that I got my hopes too high when I thought you might actually die from that blast." Rukia sighed "Yeah, there are two Rukia. She was my twin sister, Rukia Yamiko."

"Are you on my side or not?!"

"Nice to meet you, Railgun, although I prefer not to meet you at all. But you're here, so, I hope I could give a performance worthy of you." a huge beam of orange light streamed from a point over Yamiko's head, right towards Misaka's head.

"A large-scale artificial Railgun?" Rukia shouted reflexively, but Misaka didn't even tried to dodge it.

Instead, a blur of white and grey appeared out of nowhere and deflected the beam of light, destroying the railgun platform in the process. "Nice one, Accelerator." Misaka smirked to the figure floating with grey wings made of wind spirals.

"Tch, let's not made it a habit. Where is that bastard anyway?"

"Deep fried on the bottom of this crater. I would actually thank you if you could pick him up."

"Tch, so I was a delivery service now?" he jumped down to the crater, and soon went out of sight.

"Misaka, could you handle all those small fries? I'll settle things with my sister." the air temperature dropped extremely, crack of frozen carbon dioxide formed in Rukia's skin.

" _Exinaniti255" I detest the emptiness in my heart._ While muttering her magic name, Rukia took out several rune cards from her pocket.

"Death is his name, Dark is his wings. I call upon your power, so wake up and serve me, Thanatos!"

Death had been always one of the symbol of inevitability. All stood equal in the face of Death, and no one could cheat Death, not even the ancient Greek gods. Thus an attack with this aspect of ancient Greek daemon of Death will affect the target no matter where the the target is, but the caster would also be affected.

" _An inavoidable attack using the attribute of Death, eh?_ " a shocked expression formed in Rukia's face as her sister calmly analyzed her attack. "Rukia family had a long history about clash between twins. One adept in magic and the other is natural gemstones. But our case is unique, as we're both neither yet you have the capability to become both when I had none. It turns out _I_ was supposed to be the magician and _you_ are the esper in the first place."

"That explains your instant analysis. But you already an esper, so you cannot be a magician anymore."

" _You_ steal everything from me. And I will destroy everything you hold dear." a thin wings made entirely from Dark Matter, the #2's power, spread behind Yumiko's back, while a white spear formed in her right hand.

Shortly, a dark fire exploded from Rukia's feet. As it's attribute implied, the fire burnt through her body and Yamiko's simultaneously. With a gentle swing of her spear, the fire doused immediately.

But the fire burning through Rukia's body did not. Only through her control over fire as an esper that she was able to survive amidst the raging dark fire.

" _I will kill you_ " a plasma burst launched Rukia into the air, where countless Dark Matter spear launched from her sister's back. None as much as touched her.

"How'd you acquired the #2's power? I don't think you've reached that level."

"I expanded the pattern embedded on fragments of his power with my own and created a pseudobrain to do the calculation needed to recreate his power. I could stay in all-out battle for a full day and still have enough power to completely recover my body. Of course, healing one's wound used calculation so complex that the pseudobrain be shattered after used, but that'll worth it."

"A smart tactics. You're a heir to Rukia family after all." two spears clashed. One made from pure white Dark Matter and the other from purple-white glowing plasma.

And both of them pierced through their enemy's heart.

Both Rukia and her sister coughed blood, while Misaka blasted the last of Meltdowner cannon into smitherens. "Rukia!"

"Don't come closer!" a huge white spear blocked Misaka's movement.

"I really was a bad sister, huh."

"You think? I won't be this passionate about killing you if you wasn't a bad sister. Do you have any idea-"

"That's not what I mean. What I mean is, not only I made my sister hate me, I also made her wen't through the pain of killing me, and I even let her live with that. " the plasma spear in her right hands disappeared, leaving Yamiko's body unscathed.

"I never had the slightest intention to kill you, even when I saw him died."

"You!? Don't act like some twisted heroine, you bitch!" Yamiko twisted the impaled Dark Matter spear and stabbed another one at Rukia's right lung. "How could I detest you if you still act like that!? I supposed to be the heroine that took everything back from you, so fulfill your duty as a vilain, you miserable excuse of twin sister!"

"I know. Farewell, my kind little sister. _All stood equals in the hands of Death, as his kind and gentle touch sever all souls. Awake! And embrace me in your hands!_ " that was a suicidal spell, a spell embedded within a powerful grimoire named Children of Nyx to prevent spreading of the knowledge via oral transmission or related method. Rukia extracted the spell and used it upon herself. 

And then all hell broke loose when a blurry silhouette of white and gray appeared.

The winged esper that was known as the strongest in the Academic City was bringing a certain highschool boy with pointy black hair. Upon reaching ten meters altitude, he dropped the boy that ontherwise known as Imagine Breaker to the middle of the clash between the Rukia twins. His mere arrival dispelled the suicide spell, doused the raging dark fire around Rukia

" _And who is it that you'd saw died?_ Don't kill me so easily!"

"Tch, if I didn't restore your pulse, you'd still be deep fried on the bottom of that crater. Don't act mighty, thug!"

"Yeah, yeah, minor details. Anyway...."

"Can't we stop the chit-chat already? Your objective is to destroy REASON, right? _I am_ REASON, so now decide if you're going to kill me, arrest me, or chop me."

"What about Rukia? Wait, there are two Rukias?!"

"Yeah! We're twins! Marvelous, right?! Can't we save the trivial matters for later?! If you're not going to let me die, at least take the responsibility by finishing this quickly and bring me to the hospital!"

"Oh, don't worry about that." Yamiko pointed her index finger to the spears stabbing into her sister's chest. In an instant, the spear and the wound disappeared. Even her torn clothes are restored.

"But, the pseudobrain?!"

"Shattered, yes. But how could I embrace you if there're spears in your body?" she hugged her sister, both of them smiling.

Misaka joined Kamijou and Accelerator. "What're we going to do to her?" she asked.

"Well, our objective is completed." Accelerator shrugged while reaching for his earphone "Director is dissolving the START. As for the leader of REASON, consider her harmless and under supervision of Wind. Director out." with that, he crushed the earphone and walks away from the crater, muttering something about stupid curfew or something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, not really a glorious war, but I do like a happy ending.


	7. The Spellcaster from Far South : Unknown_Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After that (tad disapointing) wars on science side, a magician from a South Eastern Asian country invaded Academy City..... And another skirmishes begin.....

Rukia woke up with a start, and dazed a while at the unfamiliar ceilings.

"Oh, right, Yomikawa-sensei's home." she almost groaned. Ever since the clash between START and REASON two weeks ago, Yomikawa Aiho had held her captive at her apartment, although Rukia didn't see the point in doing so.

Another girl cuddled beside her. Two girls, actually, because apparently Last Order and Yamiko had this stupid competition to get her attention. The most surprising fact is that Yamiko, the 18 years old founder of shadow organization REASON, actually the one who proposed this competition to Last Order. Go figure.

As both of them didn't go to school for one reason or another, they won't woke up untill it's too late for her to even run with a toast shounen-manga style. Usually, Accelerator would took Last Order away and left Rukia to deal with Yamiko. But the brown haired miniature of Misaka Mikoto is still cuddling beside her, so probably Accelerator was already occupied or simply forgotten.

And so, Rukia Kurogami, one of the level five in the Academic City and a sorceress who had written the grimoire 'Children of Nyx', lied helplessly in her bed as the girls hugging her body so tightly and the digital clock showing 8 AM.

"Ah, Kurogami onee-chan, you already awake."

 _She actually awake before 8.15. It's a miracle._ Rukia sarcasticaly thought as Yamiko stood from the bed and tugged Last Order away. Rukia changed the entrophy inside her own body and temporarily freed herself from the constraint of physical body, before reforming in front of the mirror, uniforms and all. Normally, this is a dangerous task, as she had to accurately calculated every particle in her body to prevent a messed up face or even death, but with her entropy calculation had been integrated to her subconscious thought process, she didn't even have to consciously do any calculation to do that.

Speaking about school....

"Yamiko?"

"Hmm? What's that, Onee-chan?"

"What happened to your school?"

"Ah? Well, I dropped out two years after you ran away from the Church."

"Did mother know?"

"No she didn't. And I bet she didn't know about you running away either."

"Bad luck, girl, because I had notified mother the first thing after reaching Academic City. Hmm, it's no surprise your level had stagnated if you stopped taking the curiculum two years after first detection."

"Speakig of our mother, what kind of mother sent her children to become magician and esper yet still calm when I stopped contacting her and you ran away from Necessarius? I had been here for as long as I could remember, so I don't exactly remember what kind of person she was."

"Huh? That's weird, I can't remember our mother. Even though I supposedly met her a while back. Well, we could talk about this later, so see ya!" Rukia hastily tie up her shoelaces and ran towards her school, Harunoki High.

A woman, no, a girl that was too tall for her age, stood atop a skyscraper. Her long dark hair tied in ponytail, a two meter long nodachi straped into her waist. If one looks at her clothes, one could only conclude that she had messed up sense of fashion. Half of her denim trouser was cut off, her boots' length was missmatched, and her white shirt was tied under her right chest, revealing her navel and accentuating her breast.

She was Kanzaki Kaori, a saint and a magician associated with the zeroth parish of Anglican Church, Necessarius. Her eyes tracking a single girl wearing dark-colored sailor uniform known as Rukia Kurogami, a sorceress and a level 5 esper.

 _Somehow I feel bad by doing this, but I had no options._ Kanzaki jumped down the skyscraper and used wires embedded in her nodachi, Shichiten Shichitou, to make stepping platform. "Stiyl, had you set the opila runes?" she whispered to a comunication charm embedded between her ears.

"The last one had just activated. And oh, she had arrived at the scene. Say, Kanzaki, why did we need her again?"

"To neutralize the huge spell that is the Awakening of Nyx, the biggest and the worst spell in the grimoire she'd written. The effect of this spell is at least twice as big as Angel Fall, as Nyx was one of the oldest and therefore strongest primordial goddess in the ancient Greek mythology. Not even the chief god would dare to aproach her realms. Both Imagine Breaker and the Index could not used for this occasion. The only one who could neutralize the spell was the one who knew the spell inside and out, the sorceress herself."

"Tch, even obtaining the original wasn't enough, huh? At any rate, should I greet her?"

"Go on."

Rukia arrived at the Harunoki High with an eerie feeling. It's already 8.26, and she was barely made it to the school, but there was something that felt amiss.

No, it's exactly because she could feel _nothing_ at the school.

"It's been a long time, Rukia Kurogami of Necessarius." Rukia turned to face the source of the voice.

"I'm no longer associated with the Church of Necessary Evil, Stiyl Magnus."

"Well, you're a sorceress nonetheless, and we need your help and your help only."

"Wait, that sounds suspicious."

"Yeah, because we need help on a grimoire that even the Index didn't know about, thus she was useless in this mission."

"Don't tell me, _my_ grimoire? Someone used the Children of Nyx?"

"Yeah, someone from a country in southeast Asia named Indonesia." he threw a photograph towards Rukia "His name is Ki Pakubaya[1]. His magic is unknown, his cabal is even more secretive than Amakusa church. But I guess he was utilizing infective magic in form of curse. Since his magic utilizes completely different phase than ours, he didn't have any magic name, or rather, he had discarded his true name and used his magic name permanently."

"Are you guys from the Necessarius still tracking him?"

And then Kanzaki Kaori landed beside her, blowing up intense amount of dust.

"Our intel said that he was in the outskirt of Osaka."

"Gwah! At least tell me first when you're going to land, Kao-chan! And anyway, don't you think Osaka is a bit too far for me to travel right away?!"

"' _Kao-chan?_ ' When did you became so intimate with Kanzaki?"

With eyes full with murderous intent, Kanzaki looked into Rukia's eyes, her hand on her sword hilt. "Call me that again, and I will let you know the taste of the Shichiten Shichitou." She whispered.

Rukia shuddered at the thought. "Please restrain from that, Priestess Kanzaki-sama."

Kanzaki merely sighed. "We will start at dusk, the spell could only activated at the domain of Nyx anyway. Enjoy your peaceful school day for now."

"Don't say that to me as if its my last day!"

"It might as well be." As she said that, Kanzaki left with supersonic speed, leaving Rukia alone.

"At least cheer me up before left me with a life-threatening battle." She sighed before walked toward the school building.

At the same time, Ki Pakubaya had finished his preparation to launch a large scale magical attack. He used magical construct that once turned an entire city into a huge lake, the largest lake in Indonesia, Toba Lake. He was an expert of traditional Javanese magic, but he also well versed in traditional magic from all over Indonesia as well.

The Toba Lake was formed when a man broke his oath with the princess of the river. The princess had once turned into a human when the man swore he would never tell anyone about her true identity. They lived happily with one son named Samosir. One day, though, Samosir did something wrong and his father accidentally insulted him as 'son of a fish', thus breaking his oath. The enraged princess turned the entire city into a huge lake, only leaving a small patch of land to save her son Samosir, which became the name of the island.

If he used the spell based on the legends right there and then, it would turned the city of Osaka into a huge lake, and it'll trigger a chain reaction that probably leveled half of the Kyushu island. And yet Ki Pakubaya continued the spell.

"Hmm, the spell preparation should be completed, now I just need the 'princess' and the 'man' to begin the ceremony."

The spell would destroy a large portion of Japan. But Ki Pakubaya continued his preparation anyway. His target for the spell wasn't Japan. Now that he had the grimoire Children of Nyx, by combining his magic and the knowledge embedded in the grimoire, he could freely change the target of his spell as long as the target and the spell were located in the domain of Nyx, the night.

Since night covers half of the planet, it would be hard to determine where his magical attack would strike.

In Yomikawa Aiho's apartment, the level 2 esper Rukia Yamiko rolled lazily on the floor while the researcher Yoshikawa Kikyou sat on the sofa.

"I feel so bored! How come I'm the only one left at home? Even Last Order got to go shopping with Accelerator, why did I left here?"

"I'm still here, you know" Yoshikawa Kikyou sighed.

"Kyou-chan doesn't count!"

"And why was that!? I'm trying so hard to befriend you, and yet you ignored me."

"Well, you're a researcher, and any talk with you would be really boring"

"Hey, I do able to talk about something else."

"But our only common interest was neuroscience and esper development. Deal with it, Kyou-chan."

"Talking about that, how is it going at REASON?"

"Well, although we lost our reason to develop the power in the first place, no pun intended, we still going on the research. We're a bit short on theories, though. The Level 5 linking theory is the only plausible theory, and yet the START shattered the experiment. We would need to acquire Takitsubo Rikou to advance the research, and even that was impossible."

Just right there and then, the solid concrete floor exploded, and a man in his thirties stood at the rubble.

"Where is the girl?"

"Huh, we're all girls, though. Which one were you talking about?"

"(Kyou-chan, I don't think it's time for a joke!)" Yamiko whispered, only to be silenced by Yoshikawa.

"(I got this. Just stay quiet.)"

"The little girl that goes by the name Last Order. Where is she? Answer me!"

Yamiko prepared a white dagger behind her back, but stopped by Yoshikawa. "I am Last Order."

"Hah, stop joking around, Yoshikawa Kikyou. I know exactly how Last Order and Accelerator looks like, including everyone in their inner circle. That includes you, Rukia Yamiko."

"It's pretty impressive to recognize one of us correctly in our first meeting. We look so much alike that most people got us mixed up."

"Hmm, it's pretty obvious if you were from the magic side, you know. Only the elder one had refined mana circling around, whereas the younger one just had huge amount of unrefined life force. No, huge would be an understatement, the amount of your life force was _gigantic._ I wonder how could you retain your human body with that amount of power residing inside you."

"Well, my sister just keep refusing when I asked her to teach me how to refine mana. It's not like I needed it anyway, I don't really feel like destroying my own body"

"Well, then I'll just destroy you as is." He swung a wooden stick that had appeared at some point. A huge arc of wind gushed forth, shattering all the windows and the television on the living room, leaving a huge slashing mark on the wall.

And yet Yoshikawa and Yamiko didn't budge from their position.

A white shield made of materials that didn't exist on this world, the Dark Matter, was protecting them. The shield shot forward towards the magician like a cannon shot, before shattered with another slash from the wooden stick.

"I'm sorry to ruin your fun, but magic wasn't the only power in this world." Yamiko had once used her power to produce a brain capable to mimic the Academy City's #2, and it's not that hard for her to use her power for another purpose.

"So that's esper power, huh?" at some point, the stick had gone and replaced with a 20 cm dagger. The dagger was shaped like a snake tails, as it curved several times. He unhesitantly threw the dagger. "Keris."

"!" Yamiko threw Yoshikawa out the window while cushioning her falls with a Dark Matter shield. The _keris_ flew through large arc like a guided misile and stabbed to Yamiko's side. "Argh!"

"Do you know about _Beringin_ trees? I guess not, huh? The scientific name would be Ficus benjamina. There are special myth among us Javanese that this tree collect and manifest spiritual energy. Of course, the energy collected by this mere wand was ridiculously small it'd be more effective to generate magic myself, but the telesma, i believe that's how you call it, collected in this wand had a special properties, that is partially manifesting the mana passed through it. That's how I could do this."

A briliant arc of light charged toward Yamiko, and she didn't have enough time to create a Dark Matter shield. She closed her eyes tightly as the arc that almost symbolizes her death grew closer....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] pronounced kih pah-kuh-boh-yoh
> 
> I know, I know. _First chapter in several months and you dare post a half baked chapter with cliffhangers as in it's end? Talk about half a$$ed work!_
> 
> I'm an idiot after all.
> 
> There is a wikipedia article about Keris in case you wanted to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me all the parts I fcked up so I won't do the same stupidity in the future!


End file.
